Lithuanian Radio and Television

ZILINKUTĖ-MIKULSKIENĖ Antanina, Vilnius

My son Dalius Mikulskis, a first year physics student, was at the Radio and TV building on Konarskio Street from midnight until 6 in the morning. When we heard on the radio that there weren't a lot of people there, my husband and I went too. Besides, we wanted to be closer to our son.

The ensemble „Armonika" was playing. When they finished playing, people started to scream that tanks were coming, and most of the people ran forward, some singing, some shouting. Someone asked us to go back to the main entrance, so my husband and I went. There were a lot of people standing there. We stood in the first row, our hands joined. A lot of military vehicles were coming down Konarskio Street towards Basanavičius Street. Speeding along, they fired in all directions. It was truly hell, but we all stayed where we were. I stood right across from the entrance, maybe 5 or 6 meters from the brick wall. Tanks were speeding down the street and people were screaming. Suddenly, I saw paratroopers, huddled together like dogs, run out of the darkness towards us, simultaneously throwing explosives the size of coffee boxes. One of them hit the tip of my shoe and rolled back a little.

There was a terrible explosion and a flame, and smoke covered us. Everything went dark, and I probably said out loud that I couldn't see anything. Someone shouted for us to breathe through our mouths. Though I closed my eyes, I still felt fire in them: my first thought was that I had gone blind. Meanwhile, windows were being broken. We realized that they had seized the building, but couldn't understand how they had gotten inside because we were surrounding it. RTV workers were being thrown out of the building. The windows were crashing on all the floors and the lights went out. Suddenly tanks started to pour in. Through the garden, crushing everything, they rolled towards the building - towards us.

The first one was coming straight at the door, and there were a lot of people there. I was standing by the brick wall, and when I turned around to look, I saw tanks coming straight at me. I moved to the right and was left alone, separated by the tanks from everyone else. The garden was filled with moving tanks, but I got up my courage and went right in front of them towards the Institute, where there were a lot of people. Others were on Konarskio Street, where there was a lot of shooting and people screaming. Ambulances began to rush in. Without any sensation, I began to cry...